Someone Other Than a Mother: Flipping the Scripts on a Woman's Purpose and Making Meaning beyond Motherhood

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Synopsis
Theologian Erin S. Lane overturns dominant narratives about motherhood and inspires women to write their own stories.Is it possible to do something more meaningful than mothering? As a young Catholic girl who grew up in the American Midwest on white bread and Jesus, Erin S. Lane was given two options for a life well-lived: Mother or Mother Superior. She could marry a man and mother her own children, or she could marry God, so to speak, and mother the world&’s children. Both were good outcomes for someone else&’s life. Neither would fit the shape of hers. Interweaving Lane&’s story with those of other women—including singles and couples, stepparents and foster parents, the infertile and the ambivalent—Someone Other Than a Mother challenges the social scripts that put moms on an impossible pedestal and shame childless women and nontraditional families for not measuring up. You may have heard these lines before: • &“Motherhood is the toughest job.&” This script diminishes the work of non-moms and pressures moms to make parenting their full-time gig. • &“It&’ll be different with your own.&” This script underestimates the love of nonbiological kin and pushes unfair expectations onto nuclear families. • &“Family is the greatest legacy.&” This script turns children into the ultimate sign of a woman&’s worth and discounts the quieter ways we leave our mark. With candor and verve, Someone Other Than a Mother tears up the shaming social scripts that are bad for moms and non-moms alike and rewrites the story of a life well-lived, one in which purpose is bigger than body parts, identity is fuller than offspring, and legacy is so much more than DNA.
Copyright:
2022

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780593329337
Related ISBNs:
9780593329313
Publisher:
Penguin Publishing Group
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Erin S. Lane
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
Nonfiction, Parenting and Family, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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